The Cardinal led
most of the way, but UCLA pulled within 1 point, 63-62, with only 20.7 seconds
left. After a break by the referees to determine possession, the ball went to
Stanford. UCLA fouled Bonnie, who hit two free throws with 14 seconds to go.
UCLA missed a trey with 4 seconds to go and fouled Lili, who made two free
throws to ice the win.

Amber led the team
with 18 points, followed by Lili with 14 and Bird with 10.

Payback
against ASU, 59-56

Next up on March 7
was No. 2-seeded ArizonaState, coached by
Stanford WBB alum Charli Turner Thorne, ’88. Once again the score was close,
59-56, with the Cardinal on top.

Amber had scored
all of the team’s points at the 13:55 mark, when Stanford led 12-6. The
halftime score was 29-25, thanks in large part to 15 points from Amber and 9
from senior forward Taylor Greenfield.

The Cardinal had a
fairly comfortable lead, 48-35, at the 11:08 mark, but had amassed 10 fouls to
ASU’s one.

The lead kept
shrinking until it was 57-56 with 39.5 seconds left. After another huddle to
determine possession, the refs gave the ball to Stanford. ASU began fouling,

With the clock at
20.2 seconds, ASU, now with six fouls, forced Bonnie and the ball out of
bounds. ASU got the ball and shot it, but freshman forward Kaylee Johnson blocked
it. She was fouled, made her first free throw and missed the second, but Taylor
rebounded it. She was fouled and made her free throw to clinch the victory at
59-56.

Amber had a
game-high 18 points, followed by Taylor
with 17. Kaylee had a team-high 10 rebounds plus a career-high five blocks. The
team’s nine blocks were a season high (eight previously).

A big puzzle for
Cardinal fans was the disparity in fouls – 21 on Stanford versus 13 on ASU,
many of them deliberate in the final seconds.

61-60
squeaker over Cal
leads to jubilation

As if the first two
games weren’t suspenseful enough, the championship game against Cal on March 8 was even
tighter, 61-60.

Before the game,
the video board noted that Stanford was 36-3 all time in the tournament. Now
it’s 37-3.

Stanford had an
immediate edge because it had played the earlier game the night before, giving
it more rest on a night when clocks advanced an hour for Daylight Saving Time.

Perhaps another
difference-maker came less than 5 minutes into the first half when Brittany inadvertently collided with Brittany Boyd,
sending the Cal
point guard to the locker room with a facial cut. She returned late in the first
half and wound up playing 27 minutes but had only 7 points. Cal forward Reshanda Gray played only 29
minutes because of foul trouble and finished with 6 points.

In the meantime, Taylor was on her way to
a career-high, game-high 20 points, while Lili had 13 and Amber 12.

Kaylee finished
with 12 rebounds for her 17th 10-plus rebound game this season.

Stanford led by no
more than 6 points throughout the second half. With 8.4 seconds left, the lead
was 61-57, so Cal’s
3-pointer left it 1 point short of forcing overtime.

With that, Stanford
fans and players could celebrate.

Tournament
honors for Amber, Taylor

Amber was named to
the all-tournament team for the second time (2013 was the first). Besides her
12 points, she had a career-high six steals, tied for most steals in a
championship game.

Taylor was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding
Player and received a curving, blue glass trophy. A similar but larger trophy
was presented to head coach Tara VanDerveer for the team’s 11th
tournament championship. Then it was time to cut down the nets.

Nicknamed
“Tournament Taylor” by her teammates, Taylor
was the first non-starter to be named MOP in the tournament’s 14 years.

Defense was
critical in all three tournament wins with Stanford amassing 17 steals, three
more than its opponents. The team also had a total of 20 blocks, compared with
four by its opponents.

Winning the
tournament gave Stanford an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. When
tournament selections were announced March 16, its No. 4 seed gave it the right
to host the first two rounds at Maples.

The
Big Dance begins

Back on the Farm,
the team logged wins in Rounds 1 and 2 of the NCAA tournament to advance to the
Oklahoma City
regional.

The first win came
March 21 over Cal State Northridge 73-60. This was a milestone event as Tara enjoyed her 800th victory at Stanford.
Thus she became only the 10th Division 1 men’s or women’s coach to
amass that many wins at one school. She raised her overall Stanford record to
800-165 and her career record to 952-216 as of that date.

In addition, the
victory marked the 500th for the program in Maples Pavilion against
87 losses.

Stanford jumped out
to an 8-0 lead, holding CSUN scoreless until just after four minutes into the
game. The lead ballooned for another seven minutes until CSUN made a run that
put it ahead 29-28 at the half.

Once the second
half got under way, the tide began to turn, thanks in part to Lili and Taylor.
Lili had spent part of the first half on the bench with two fouls, but she
returned to score 7 quick points. She finished second in scoring with 17
points.

“Tournament Taylor” scored 13 of her
team-leading 19 points in the second half. Playing virtually the entire game,
Bonnie added 14 points. Also in double figures was Bird with 10.

Amber had 6 points
and figured in the highlight of the second half. She scrambled for a loose ball
on the floor and flipped it to Lili, who sped to the basket for an easy layup.

Accounting for part
of the 13-point victory margin were 19 of 25 free throws, compared with four of
five by CSUN. Stanford had nine fouls compared with CSUN’s 19. Many of those
came in the final two minutes, even in the final few seconds when CSUN had no
chance of winning.

Oklahoma falls next

Oklahoma was the next to fall, 86-76, on March 23.
The Sooners had advanced by beating Quinnipiac of Connecticut 111-84 two days
earlier.

Tara used only eight of the 12 available
players. As had been in the case in several previous games, sophomore guard Karlie
Samuelson was out with a broken finger. Sophomore forward Kailee Johnson and redshirt
junior guard Alex Green were unavailable for undisclosed reasons for both NCAA
games.

The Cardinal
trailed throughout the first half, leading to a 36-32 halftime deficit. That
was nothing new. Counting this game, the Cardinal had been down at the half 14
times this season and had rallied to win nine times, including the previous six
games.

Lili and Amber
teamed up to move Stanford ahead in the second half. The lead stretched to as
many as 14 points about halfway through, but Oklahoma kept trying to come back.

With less than three
minutes to go, the Sooners deliberately fouled, but that tactic didn’t work
because the Cardinal made most of its free throws.

For the game,
Stanford made a season-high 30 free throws on 38 attempts, tying a season high.
Thus it shot 78.9 percent from the charity stripe. Oklahoma had 28 fouls with two players
fouling out. Stanford had 21 fouls; no one fouled out.

Stanford made only
two 3’s in the first half but finished with a total of eight. Bonnie accounted
for three, all in the second half. Lili also had three. Amber and sophomore
guard Briana Roberson had one each.

Amber led all
players with 24 points. Thus she became the 21st SWBB player to pass
the 1,400-point mark with a total of 1,414 career points. Her career-high 11
field goals topped her previous high of 10.

Bonnie and Lili had
19 points each. Even though Bonnie got her fourth foul with 3:22 to go, Tara kept her in, giving her time to make a 3 and several
free throws.

With 13 points, Bri
was the fourth player in double figures. At that point, Stanford was 13-0 for
the season when at least four players scored in double figures.

The victory upped
Stanford’s NCAA record to 77-26 overall and 32-4 at Maples. This win was its 12th
straight at home.

It also allowed the
Cardinal to advance to its eighth consecutive Sweet 16.

End
of the line in OKC

The season ended
March 27 when No. 1 seeded Notre Dame defeated No. 4 seed Stanford 81-60 in the
Oklahoma City
regional.

With the Irish
shooting 49.2 percent and the Cardinal 35.4 percent, Stanford was defeated by
the better team, at least for that evening. Stanford finished the season 26-10
while Notre Dame improved to 34-2 and an Elite 8 date with Baylor.

Despite the disparity
in the final score, Stanford rallied several times but couldn’t pull ahead.
With about two minutes to go, Tara sent in the
bench, thus giving playing time to all 12 available players. (Karlie, Kailee
and Alex were still in street clothes.)

Lili went to the
locker room for several minutes after hurting her knee in the first half. She returned
to play for a while longer but logged a total of only 16 minutes and scored
only 2 points.

Among the game’s
highlights were Bonnie’s five 3-pointers. She scored a total of 17 points to
lead the team. With Bonnie’s reputation as a great 3-point shooter, the TV
announcer quipped that the opposition has to start guarding her coming out of
the locker room.

Amber and Bird were
the only other Cardinal players in double figures, scoring 12 points each. Bird
had a double-double with a game-leading 10 rebounds.

With the season
behind them, the players could focus more on academics as the spring quarter
began March 30.

In the meantime,
Amber was named a Senior
CLASS Award Second Team All-American for excellence in the classroom,
character, community and competition. She also earned an Associated Press
All-America honorable mention nod and was one of five Women’s Basketball
Coaches Association (WBCA) All-Region VIII honorees.

Bonnie was one of
eight senior women chosen to compete in the State Farm 3-Point Championship in Indianapolis prior to the
men’s Final Four.

For a complete
rundown of team and individual accomplishments, look at “In the Record Book
2014-15” under Stories of the Season on this site.

Looking ahead, fans
may be optimistic about next season. At least nine players are returning, and
the four incoming recruits come with strong credentials. Just wait ’til next
year.

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About Me

Judy reviews San Francisco Bay Area theater and writes feature articles about activities of the Stanford Women's Basketball team and Fast Break Club. A longtime Bay Area journalist, she is retired from the San Francisco Chronicle, where she was a writer and copy editor.